Office of the Attorney General
State of Texas

You inquire about the procedures applicable to requests for
information under the Texas Open Records Act, article 6252-17a,
V.T.C.S. Your questions do not involve a request for specific
records under the Open Records Act; thus we cannot issue a
determination under that statute. Open Records Decision No. 417
(1984). Nor are school districts authorized by section 402.042
of the Government Code to request Attorney General Opinions.
However, we can direct your attention to prior decisions of our
office which are relevant to your questions.

You state that the Dallas Independent School District contracts
for a "voice mail box" service for its employees and Board of
Education members. It operates by allowing employees to send
telephone messages to board members' voice mail boxes either
individually or by making one call which can be sent to all nine
board members' voice mail boxes. These messages are recorded and
maintained until the board member receives the message by dialing
an individual code. He may then erase the message.

The district has allowed media representatives that pay the
cost of a voice mail box to receive messages sent by employees to
board members. You inform us that media representatives often
receive a message and make it public before board members have
received it. The board would like to delay the delivery of voice
mail messages to the media by twenty-four hours to allow board
members an opportunity to receive them and to allow the
district's legal staff to review the messages for information
confidential by law or excepted from public disclosure by the
exceptions in the Open Records Act. In connection with this
proposal, you ask the following questions:

(1) Do telephone messages from employees to board members
placed in computerized voice mail boxes have to be shared with
members of the media without a written request for specific
information?

(2) If the messages must be shared with the media, may the
district exclude information that is confidential by law or
exempt from disclosure under Section 3(a) of Article 6252-17a
[V.T.C.S.] without disclosing same to the media?

(3) Must the district share the information immediately with
the news media or may the district delay the disclosure of the
messages for twenty-four hours to allow review by district staff
to determine if the messages contain information that is
confidential by law or exempt from disclosure under Section 3(a)
and to allow the board time to receive the messages before [they
are] released to the public?

The Open Records Act defines "public records" as "the portion
of all documents, writings, letters, memoranda, or other written,
printed, typed, copied, or developed materials which contains
public information." Tape recordings and computer tapes are
subject to the Open Records Act. Open Records Decision Nos. 352 (1982);
32 (1974).

In Open Records Decision No.
304 (1982), this office determined
that the Open Records Act did not require any governmental body
to produce information in the absence of a written request. See
V.T.C.S. art. 6252-17a, s 7(a). Moreover, a request under the
Open Records Act applies only to information in existence when
the request is received by the governmental body. Open Records
Decision No.
452 (1986); see also Attorney General Opinion
JM-48
(1983); Open Records Decision Nos.
465 (1987);
362 (1983);
342 (1982);
145 (1976);
87 (1975). A governmental body is
therefore not required to comply with a standing request to
provide information as it comes into existence in the future.
Open Records Decision No.
465 (1987).

Section 3(a)(1) of the Open Records Act protects from public
disclosure information deemed confidential by the constitution,
case law, or statutes, that is, by sources of law other than the
Open Records Act itself. Educational institutions must also
comply with the confidentiality provisions of the Family
Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, 20 U.S.C. s 1232g.
See, e.g., Open Records Decisions No.
431 (1985);
72 (1975).
The exceptions to public disclosure in section 3 other than
section 3(a)(1) are waived by the governmental body if it fails
to raise them when it requests an Open Records Decision from this
office. See, e.g., Open Records Decision No.
325 (1982).

The governmental body that receives a request for documents
initially decides whether any of the requested information is
confidential or permitted to be withheld, subject to the Attorney
General's review. See generally Attorney General Opinion H-90
(1973) at 7-8. A governmental body may take a reasonable amount
of time to comply with a request for public information. Open
Records Decision No.
467 (1987) at 6. What constitutes a
reasonable time depends upon the facts of each case; the volume
of material requested is highly relevant to that determination.
Id. See Open Records Decision No.
96 (1975) ("directory"
information about students is deemed in "active use" under
article 6252-17a, section 4, V.T.C.S, while notice required by
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act is given).